New ‘Star Trek’ Television Series to Feature First Gay Romance in 51-Year History

thenewcivilrightsmovement.com
by Ryan Williams-Jent
July 23, 2017

The upcoming CBS All Access television series “Star Trek: Discovery” announced yesterday that it will feature the first gay romance in the television show’s 51-year history.

The announcement came during the show’s panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where out actor Anthony Rapp announced that out actor Wilson Cruz will portray his love interest when the show returns to the small screen in September.

“I play the first openly gay character in the history of TV Star Trek,” Rapp said at the panel, before elaborating that Cruz will “play [his] love interest and [his] partner.”

While last year’s feature-length “Star Trek: Beyond” portrayed the character of Sulu as a gay man, Rapp and Cruz will bring the series’ first fully-explored gay romance to the small screen, continuing the long-running franchise’s tradition of diversity.

Originally airing in 1966, “Star Trek” made history by featuring the first black woman to play a lead role on a television series. Nichelle Nichols portrayed Lieutenant Uhura on the show’s original run, and just two years later, shared the first televised interracial kiss with William Shatner in 1968.

“‘Star Trek’ started with a wonderful expression of diversity in its cast,” the show’s co-creator Bryan Fuller said. “We’re continuing that tradition.”

In a surprising revelation, the producers of the upcoming prequel Star Trek: Discovery have announced lead character Commander Michael Burnham’s connection to the original series is deeper than we were initially led to believe, as she is the half sister of the franchise’s stalwart Vulcan science officer, Spock.

The cast and crew of Discovery assembled at San Diego Comic-Con Saturday to discuss Star Trek’s much anticipated return to the small screen. While the series has enjoyed a successful movie relaunch under J.J. Abrams, Star Trek has been absent from television since Enterprise was unceremoniously cancelled in 2005. Plot details on Discovery have been elusive, but the show’s producers are beginning to open up about what’s to come.

One of the biggest revelations of the day was that series lead Michael Burnham (The Walking Dead’s Sonequa Martin-Green) is in fact Spock’s half-sister. As reported by the official Star Trek Discovery Twitter, Burnham was raised on Vulcan as a child by her human mother, Amanda, who was married to Spock’s father, Sarek. The producers acknowledged there’s never been any mention of Spock having a half-sister, and asked the fans for patience in telling their story.

This is actually not the first time Spock has been saddled with a previously unmentioned half-sibling. In the legendarily lousy Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, the crew of the Enterprise is menaced by a man named Sybok, a charismatic, emotionally charged Vulcan obsessed with finding Sha Ka Ree, a planet he believes will lead him to God. Sybok was revealed to be Spock’s long lost half-brother, the polar opposite of the famously emotionless, logical Starfleet officer.

While producers had previously hinted that Burnham had a connection to Sarek, this is a decidedly bigger connection than what has been alluded to, and potentially a troubling one. Star Trek has generally thrived in the moments where it didn’t dwell on its own past, such as The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine; the franchise’s previous attempts to mine its own history for relevance, like the aforementioned Enterprise, have largely been misfires.

And while the show may have a brilliant reason for altering the history of arguably the franchise’s most iconic character, there is a whiff of prequel desperation here, attempting to create an easy link to the original series as a shortcut for genuine character development. Coupled with the show’s controversial redesign of the Klingons, and its long, troubled production history, this is not exactly a positive sign that Discovery is going to be able to overcome its most obvious prequel hurdles.

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Star Trek: Discovery Is Introducing A Classic Original Series Element, But How?

cinemablend.com
By Mick Joest
July 28, 2017

Star Trek: Discovery has already teased a lot of call backs to the original series with castings of characters from the original Star Trek, and that nostalgia train keeps on rolling with this interesting bit of news. Co-creator and executive producer Alex Kurtzman teased the return of a classic show element at the Star Trek press conference, and CinemaBlend was there to capture it:

Yes, Tribbles, yes.

Star Trek: Discovery will once again bring back the lovable but problematic Tribbles who were first seen in the original Star Trek series. For audiences, that's the first time the Tribbles appeared on television, but within the Trek timeline, Starfleet first encountered them during the prequel series Star Trek: Enterprise. Given that Star Trek: Enterprise takes place in the 2100s and Star Trek: Discovery takes place a decade before the original series, which was set during the 2260s, the Tribbles should be something the Discovery crew is in the know about, provided they're the ones dealing with them.

With Star Trek: Discovery dealing so heavily with Klingons, it's possible the Tribbles will play a role with their people. While their tendency to quickly reproduce is problematic for humans, a Tribble will react violently when in the presence of a Klingon and emit a high pitched shriek. When considering that a single Tribble can make 1,000,000 in the course of four days, hiding one on a Klingon planet or ship could have a devastating effect and severely inhibit the capabilities of the race during this cold war between them and the Federation. Would the Federation do something so sinister even in wartime?

That remains to be seen, but with Klingons serving as a focal point to Star Trek: Discovery and Tribbles officially involved in the series it seems almost a given the two will collide in some way whether big or small. Unfortunately, the series takes place long before the Klingons would obliterate the Tribble homeworld in the late 23rd century, so fans won't get to see the hilarious sounding war that went down between Klingons and a race that's really just a bunch of fluff. That said, perhaps Star Trek: Discovery will show what event led the Klingons to eventually commit mass genocide against the creatures?